Have you ever seen what Hope looks like?
by Kyouka Natsuki
Summary: Draco joined two years ago and ran off after graduation. He’s back now, and he doesn’t understand. Everything has changed and everyone seems indifferent in a world where Voldemort reigns supreme…
1. Chapter 1

**Have you ever seen what Hope looks like?**

Draco joined two years ago and ran off after graduation. He's back now, and he doesn't understand. Everything has changed and everyone seems indifferent.in a world where Voldemort reigns supreme…

**Price to Pay**

A man was crouched over a table holding up a newspaper while discreetly doing something far different from what it looked like. His pale grey eyes flitted over happy images of people that he could not have imagined and had not imagined in such a long time. He couldn't recall any happiness, and marveled at the sight of it. His world had turned a bleak shade of grey a long time ago.

He had blond hair, combed neatly, unusual as it was, and a navy long sleeved sweater on. Worn jeans covered his legs. His appearance said it for him- This man had it rough.

He had been eyeing the two whispering girls for a few minutes and had recognized them almost at once. Finally, he decided to confront them and waved to them. He made his way to them as he noted their own belated recognition of him.

"Draco," the blonde girl said when he reached the table, "I haven't seen you in such a long time." She playfully patted him on the back, although it was an awkward movement. She turned away from his smiling face as quickly as she had welcomed him.

The other girl gave him a half-hearted glance and angrily stared at the wall.

There was a long silence, before anyone spoke.

"Why don't you sit, Draco?" She was trying too hard to be polite. Her own voice cracked while she was speaking to him. Her eyes weren't even meeting his own. "We should catch up on everything. It's been ages since we last saw you." She tried to look deep into his eyes. "You left right after school."

Draco sat down beside the blond and didn't say anything, but tapped the other girl on the shoulder. "Hermione, I-"

The brunette pushed his hand off her shoulder. "Look. Nat, I've got to go." She didn't bother to look apologetic. She looked as if she had just drunk bitter tea. More sternly she said, "Tell your friend to never touch me again." Hermione didn't look at Draco again while she walked away.

Natalija couldn't bear it the pain in her friend's voice. "He's not my friend," she yelled out in anguish. She broke away from any contact she had with the young man, and scrunched up her forehead confused, but angry. Any trace of the manners and propriety of before vanished.

She started on her frontal attack, fiercely, her lips converging into a small thin line. "Why did you come back anyways? Does it matter that you did? Do you think anyone will forgive you, or let you back into their lives?" Tears flew out of her eyes, filled with the hurt brought back from the secret they had shared.

With her back turned, she said one last scathing remark over her shoulder. "No one will forgive you for what you've done, -or let you live before the week is over."

Long after she was gone Draco ruffled his hair nervously, muttering, "God, don't I know it." He knew he was brought back from the grave. Luckily or not, this was his price to pay.

An hour later, Natalija was woken up from her nap from loud banging on her front door. Since she was sleeping right in front of the door, she had to stop this. Still lying down, she opened a discreet flap, a rectangular piece of wood cut out of the door, which had an illusion charm cast on it from the outside. She would be able to detect the person outside while remaining hidden. She stifled a gasp as she saw a familiar face right at the flap at the bottom of the door. He smiled a toothy grin. "That is one handy illusion charm." Arrogant and show-offish as he used to be. Before he could put another word in, she slammed the flap shut.

She stood up and started pacing about the small, crammed room, stepping on the pillows and blankets that littered the granite tiles.

This.

Was.

An.

Emergency.

Draco Malfoy was at her door, and she knew he would eventually get in. It was a matter of only time, and the strength of her resolve. How could she that that murderer in though? …and she was going to kill whoever told him her address. Her anxiety increased ten fold when the phone rang. Had someone told him her phone number as well? For any matter, she had to pick it up. It could be…_him_. If it was, and she didn't answer it, he would find out and- Natalija didn't want to even think of what would happen. She pulled the phone off the receiver and to her ear.

"Hello?" Her heart was beating a little too fast.

A squeal pierced the sound of her heavy breathing. "Natalija, you would never guess what Neville just did."

"What?" She asked irritably. Don't tell me something foolish, she thought. I have real problems knocking at my own door.

Again the disbelieving tone was hidden in her words. "Neville, weak-minded fellow as he is (she heard a whack and an 'ouch' on the other end), went and told Draco Malfoy, _the _Death Eater, who apparently came back from his 'mission' that you lived here." Lavender often was air-headed, but this information jarred her. That explained what he was doing at her door.

Then, she was confused. "Wait. Here? As in you're actually-"

There was a rocking of lamps and the shattering of glass as Lavender Brown appeared out of nowhere, a cellphone held to her ear her feet on her favourite pillow. As there was a ban on apparating in the muggle world, wizards were only allowed to 'rockerate'- which was simply transferring their bodies as a heavy boulder would land, popping from the sky and then dropping. Only those with a permit could even attempt this manoeuveur as it was impossible to do, without being connected with the network. The tremors that would be received throughout the area as soon as your feet hit the ground after rockerating would alert the government of the movements of these permit-holding individuals through this technique. The tremors themselves were never destructive in their nature.

Natalija ran quickly to her side, looking very exasperated. "Malfoy is right at my door at this very moment. Although I'm thankful for your presence, he now knows that I also have a visitor, and that I have not left the premises." She paused, and then threw her hands up into the air. She released on tight smile on her face, and said sardonically, "Thank you very much."

Lavender released a smile full of tension rather similar to her friend's. "Would you rather I leave right now?"

Natalija's attitude dropped immediately and so did her tight smile. She then grasped the thick of her friend's arm tightly. "Stay then, stay then."

Lavender smiled knowingly, and then more.

She mentally groaned. It was not time for one of Lavender's "smiles". These were ones where she knew something you didn't, for which you had to ask her what it meant. "Now what is it?", Natalija snapped. She was now more irritated than ever.

"He's getting in. He's preparing to destroy the door." Lavender didn't seem panicked at all. "Don't look at me like that. I know what's going to happen. I prepared the incantations put on your "special door". Whatever he's doing is going to work- the barriers are going down." Looking toward her friend she asked, clasping her hands neatly in a diligent way, "So, what are you going to do when he gets here?"

"Do you think there's time to rockerate?" Natalija's voice lost its usual exuberance. She didn't want to face this…if possible, ever.

Lavender passed a possible solution to her. "Maybe you could tell him what your "fiancé" will do to him if you let a man in?" She smiled devilishly.

"Good idea," Natalija said in wonder. It had never occurred to her she could use _him_ as a threat. She drew her friend into a tight embrace. "What would I do without you?"

"Normally, I'd answer it with "nothing", but realistically you would go running to Hermione for advice, and help." A clouded expression appeared on her face, and she seemed stymied. "Actually, before you would go to me, you'd go to Hermione. This is the first time I've actually helped you before she has." She clapped her hands together joyfully. "You should ask me much more often."

Natalija couldn't help but roll her eyes. It wasn't Lavender's fault really, it was just that Hermione was very logical, and Lavender could be just a bit…cuckoo sometimes. She'd have her head in the clouds about a boy, or be pretending to be predicting something.

"I'll go open the door then, and warn him about my fiancé then." Natalija took some brave steps and breaths toward the door and placed her hand on the knob.

There was a loud 'boom' as she was blasted away by an incredibly strong force behind the door. She was fast losing her senses. She thought she heard a shriek from Lavender. Air was rushing past her and she was flying away. Because it was such a small room, her body hit the wall on the other side of the room hard, and the last thing she saw before she conked out was her door in pieces on the ground and a figure standing at the door triumphantly, with a familiar smirk on his grimy face.

Before she lost herself, she could only exclaim frustrated to herself, 'That little ferret!"

Then, all was dark.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Blaise Zabini's Good Deed?

Hermione had been staring at the photo for a long time now, trying to soak up the fragments of her life that she had avoided for so long. She took the chance to give her rage a break, and studied the contours of his face, tracing them dreamily with her finger. His blond hair was flipped to the side; the picture had captured his trademark smirk. She was glad this picture was not a magical picture, because if the picture had moved or talked, she would have ripped it up in and thrown it into the trash just like all the others. She just wanted the picture for what it captured in that moment- perfection. In the picture he did not look as the statue as he usually did, or used to. This morning, he had looked tired and worn…so human. He had changed tremendously, and it scared her. Maybe she was just relying on his predictability of being a cold, or worse- a muggle-hater. If it came to that, it just meant he had been away too long. Things were changing fast, and muggles and wizards have had to cooperate to just cling on to anything close resembling the normalcy of their lives before.

"HERMIONE!" A loud yell bellowed out behind the front door.

She brightened up considerably at the sound of his voice, slipped the photograph into her pocket and rushed to the door to open it. "Ron!" She screamed delightedly. She flung her arms around him, leaning into the tight embrace and stuck her head further out of the opening. "-and where's Harry?"

Hermione tucked her head back in. "Would you like to come in, Ron?" She was a bit more somber and looked down to the floor, and lifted her head again. Her tone changed, bewildered at the expression of his face. "What is it?" She put her hands on her hips demandingly.

She was surprised by his reply.

"You're beautiful," he said bashfully.

She ducked her head in embarrassment, knowing he was playing no joke with her. His face was turning the same colour as his hair, and he was looking very shy at the moment. She twiddled her fingers, wondering nervously what to say, hoping that some miracle would happen that would save her the trouble.

Just then, a person appeared behind her best friend. Ron, noticing the direction of her gaze was behind him, turned around. "Blaise? What are you doing here?"

Zabini did not look as cool, and collected as he usually was. On the contrary he looked bedraggled and frenzied. "Granger, Malfoy's in very big trouble. You've got to save him."

Hermione's world spun before her eyes, as she tried to grasp what had been said to her. Those were the last words she ever wanted to hear out of someone's mouth, only because she knew she couldn't have answered. What was she to say? He could die in the gutter bleeding to death for all she cared, and yet, it had come to this, and she could not refuse so coldly.

Still gasping for breath, Blaise gave Ron a confused look. "What's this bloke doing here?"

Ron was still wide-eyed at this whole bizarre situation, and finally turned to Hermione.

Hermione jumped at the question directed at her, and it jolted her back to "He's come back from a long journey, and doesn't deserve this kind of treatment." She smiled at him caringly. "Why don't we go in? Tell me what happened while you were gone."

Ron wanted to bellow out 'what the hell happened here, while_ he _was gone', but saw the conflicting emotions shown on her face. Instead, he reached out for her hand, and sighed. If he didn't do this now, he would never get up the courage to do it later.

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"What have you done Malfoy?" Lavender's voice quivered with fear.

Draco Malfoy was lost in this moment. With it, all his rational thoughts flew out of his head, and the world was not revolving anymore. There was only him, an unconscious girl, and the information that Lavender had just told him.

Lavender shook her head disapprovingly, although worried for her friend's health and unconscious state was reluctant to notify any authorities or get her to a hospital. The government had tracking equipment implanted in their brains- all of them except maybe Draco. She wasn't sure about him. Listening devices were planted all over the one room flat. Nowadays, houses could only be bought with one room, which meant four walls, and no dividers, which is why Hermione camped out on the floor.

Besides all these surveillance devices, if they somehow did not know about this incident and she told them, Draco would be a dead man. Already, she knew he was dreading his quick demise. He might as well have gotten hit by a lightning bolt, and it would have been the equivalent to the consequences.

"Look, Draco, you can still escape," she started, "but we have to-"

He interrupted the ramblings of Lavender. As if he was that cowardly- to run away. "I know what the ramifications are. I'm just wondering why in the world he picked someone like Natalija."

The one thing that she thought he had been worrying about was joked off by him, and Lavender scoffed. Didn't Draco know that to mess with Natalija would be messing with the most feared person in the modern world? Natalija wasn't just a normal nineteen year old girl; she was bound by the oldest magic in the land to the person that had killed, destroyed, and tortured.

Despite his sarcastic demeanour, Draco went over to her still unconscious body, and picked her up caringly. "Let's get her to the hospital." Stepping over the rubble, he took up a brisk pace, followed by a bewildered Lavender trailing after him.

They both walked in silence, until a man yelled out, "Draco!"

"Blaise Zabini, what brings you here?"

Lavender stayed quiet. She was thoroughly creeped out. Draco was putting on that expression. …_That one…_

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Ron was appearing quite irked at the idea that he knew she wanted was being rejected. He was beginning to turn slightly pink. "Hermione, why don't we just go to wherever Zabini wants us to, so that you can go save Malfoy?"

"I'm not, Ron, and that's final!" She dropped his hand. "When will you stop?"

"But 'Mione,-"

"But what?" This was an outrage. If he kept on ranting about 'saving Malfoy', she was going to- shut him up some how.

"Ron, face me please." She slapped him soundly. Not once, not twice, but thrice. It might not have been a very constructive outlet for her frustration, but it was effective nonetheless. "Now do I have your attention?" Hermione crossed her arms.

He rubbed his cheeks. "Damn, Hermione, you hit like there isn't a tomorrow."

She rolled her eyes and urged him to follow her. "C'mon, let's see what the problem is with Draco then."

Ron didn't object, but he was starting to dislike this idea again, especially when she said 'Draco' instead of her usual spite filled, 'Malfoy'.

Blaise had collected himself, and looked at them knowingly. "So you want to?"

They threw each other resigned looks, and shrugged their shoulders.

He smiled eerily, giving them both scared shivers. "I'm guessing that's a yes."

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End file.
